Bringing Vocals Forward

The challenging part of vocal coaching is getting singers to understand the feeling of vocal placement for their particular voice. It’s common at some point to show a vocalist an actual anatomy picture of the throat and muscles involved in vocal production. After that, it’s a mind game to have them understand the nuance of their own instrument.

One way to have singers bring the sound forward is to have them push out with their hands slowly while they are singing. It will look something like water aerobics – a bit silly looking and awkward. But I’ve heard this work well with individuals and especially in larger vocal ensembles. Just in bringing the hands forward I would estimate a 30% increase in overall volume without degradation of tone.

With a vocalist recently we tried this excercise but it wasn’t producing the desired effect. So I had them actually walk forward slowly while singing several phrases. For this particular vocalist it did the trick. The lightbulb went off in their head and they were very excited to feel the difference in bringing the sound forward.

Often I have heard a vocalist who is singing individual notes, but not driving through the end of a phrase. It’s as if they are sitting complacently on each note. The hand and walking excersises prove useful in getting a vocalist to visualize the forward motion of a phrase.

When a vocal phrase is “given up on” before it’s completion, it’s not very interesting to listen to. Why should the listener be engaged if the vocalist is not interested in the phrase? By singing through with intent to the very last note of a phrase, the listener is engaged in what is happening.

The walking forward is nothing I have ever read about – but came about because of a related idea I keep in mind. If you are instructing someone and they are not fully grasping the thought then you have two basic approaches: you can keep repeating the same information until they get it, or you can find a new way to explain the concept. I have found that finding a new analogy or explanation is infinitely more productive. I’ve slowly made it a habit. The reward is seeing the lightbulb shine in someone’s eyes; yes, they’ve got it!

And the thought that drives the creation of different examples is this: Know the final outcome you want. Chances are there are many varied roads to get there. Just pick one.

Blog Stats

Someone told me a couple days ago that they enjoyed this website here, especially all the insights into musical theater. Then they asked me “Is that what a blog is?”. I kind of bristled at this being called a blog. I do not write about cats. I write about all the very important issues of art, theology and science. But remembering my recent post on humility, I had to say “Yes, it’s a blog.” Of course with the qualifier that it’s really a repository for all the information I find while working on certain projects. That’s what I like to believe anyway.

What I enjoy most about about dynamic article based sites (web logs, or “blogs”) is the ability to archive information quickly while it’s on my mind. As soon as one project is finished the information is forgotten and I move on to the next. This site has been a great way to make that information available to others.

H. G. Wells, at the end of the 19th century, wrote about the need for a “world brain trust”. A place where all the knowledge in the world would be accessible by everyone at any time. Many consider this the first concept of what the internet is becoming. Blogs are part of the brain trust. When I need specific info on a small niche area, I usually find it now on a blog. And many narrow niche arrows I have written about, others use me as a reference.

I have run thousands of websites in the past and generated a lot of income on the web. But it’s only in the last year (with an active blog) that I have felt part of the global web team. Part of a team in that I now create information for others to an equal degree that I take information FROM others for my own use.

I haven’t heard many people talk about this, but the world is changing at a lightning speed in it’s understanding of many things. A “tipping point” is happening in areas of thought where in the past not all information was available to all people. Many myths are being exposed for what they are; mostly due to more information being available to study and compare.

To me, this is the most important event in my lifetime, and perhaps the most important of the last two thousand years. Do not underestimate the far reaching effects of this. Realize a great portion of the world is being re-educated in many areas all at the same time. I am sad that I will not be around in a hundred years to witness what new generations accomplish with all the global paradigm shifts in thinking currently taking place.

My contribution to further encourage this interchange was to equip my forum communities each with their own blogs on niche subjects. In addition to this website, we currently have about 100 community blogs running so each group can make their own information readily available. I will be expanding more on this in the coming year.

So, blog stats: This blog is currently in the top 60,000 blogs worldwide on technorati, has blocked over 6,000 spam messages and receives around 30,000 page views a month. Most popular subjects on my blog are translations of Latin text to English in classical music, information on Disney’s High School Musical, and some of my posts on how to fix particular problems with computer peripherals.

What the world is interested in hearing from me are not the subject matters I most passionately speak about. But that’s a lesson in itself too. And yes, this is my official self indulgent “bloggy cat-type post”.